First Bride
by The Smiling Shadow
Summary: She was the first bride. Natalie, the one who loved Vladius Dracula in life, then in death. And he loved her too. But soon the love faded, and Natalie was alone with an emotionless monster.


I had to watch him die. I had to meet his stare, and cry for him. I had to listen to him scream. And I had to watch the blood drip from his cuts...  
  
I cried for him...I cried and cried....  
  
I held on to the ring he gave me, one that bared the dragon, his name. Dragu was his father's honor. He was his son, and Dracula. A name I loved to hear. I am most likely the only one to care for his name. I stared at the little dragon, and I watched him die.  
  
And Gabriel came to me afterwards. He wrapped his arms around me, and held me. He asked my forgiveness, for he killed him. And I looked to his hand, to see the dragon on his ring. I looked at him, and he said Dracula was his friend, he said it was only right. I did not give him my forgiveness.  
  
I did not move after that day, after that night. I did not leave my room upon my castle, the castle that used to be his. I did not venture outside the now cold walls. Because if I did, I would have to alone.  
  
He was dead.  
  
And I was alone. I lost him, they took from me. My Vladius Dracula... I was the only one who was able to look past his sins, I was the only one able to truly love him... And I know he loved me as well...  
  
Months in that castle alone, with my servants, his servants trying to help me, and I accepted none of it. Because he was gone. He died, and he took a part of me with him.  
  
All those months I spent dreaming about him. I dreamed that he was condemn in the flames of Hell, I dreamed he was given the curse and gift of flight. I dreamed, no...They weren't dreams. They were nightmares.  
  
But the nightmare was only beginning.  
  
"Natalie. Natalie!"  
  
It was late at night, after the stroke midnight really. I had long gone to sleep to escape the world that lacked him, all to venture into the nightmares, where at least I could see him.  
  
"Natalie!"  
  
But a familiar voice called to me again.  
  
Slowly I opened my eyes, expecting to see nothing, have be just another dream. But I could not have been more wrong.  
  
There he was.  
  
I gasped at the sight of him. He hung outside my window upside down, as if trying to become a bat. His face was shadowed by the light of the full moon. I could not see his face, nor his eyes. But it didn't matter to me, I smiled, not even questioning how he was here, only thinking that he was here.  
  
I opened the window as fast as I could, he jumped to me, and I grabbed him. I wasn't going to let him go, my love. My love...  
  
And then I realized how cold he was, and how pale his skin...  
  
"You're so cold." I said with concern.  
  
"I know, I am sorry, but it must be this way."  
  
I stepped back from him, and he grabbed my hand. Then, I knew he was dead.  
  
"How..?" I asked, my breath showing in the cold.  
  
"I have returned for you." He said, his breath not showing.  
  
"But, but..."  
  
"Shh...My love. I have returned with wings of the devil."  
  
"The devil?" I asked in fear.  
  
"My love, he has given me this gift of life. I must thank him." He grabbed me closer. "We must thank him."  
  
"What are you...?" I asked almost tears in my eyes.  
  
"He called me a...vampire." He spoke that word with passion.  
  
"Vladius..." I held him in concern.  
  
"No, Vladius is dead! He is gone!" He held me, so I wouldn't run. "All that is left is Dracula..."  
  
"Dracula?"  
  
"My love, I cannot bare to be like this alone...Please I return for you, and I must have you."  
  
"But...The devil!"  
  
"The devil is unholy, but our love...is not."  
  
I looked up at him. I saw his eyes, the eyes I had fallen in love with. They now glow an unholy glow. But I loved him. I love him so much... And I knew I would not be able to live without him.  
  
He did not say it, but I knew he was asking me to leave everything I had. Leave this castle, the power, and riches, my family, my honor... I gave it all away for him.  
  
I nodded and he held me, rocking me like he always did.  
  
"You have no heartbeat..." I said.  
  
"Perhaps it needs to be rekindled..." He said.  
  
Yes, rekindled, I would rekindled it. I would...  
  
"It will be only a brief moment of pain. Then we will be together forever." He said strongly.  
  
He did not show me the unholy things that came from his lips. Those fangs I would soon bear... He did not show me, because he knew I would then leave him. He only held me, and bit me.  
  
In his arms, I died, and came back to life.

We danced in the sky together. Grabbing each other and clawing, teasing. We hissed and showed our fangs. We spun in the air, wrapping our wings around another. Tossing the dead mortal body around, as if it were nothing, as if it held no love in its life. We laughed and played.  
  
It was a wonderful gift from the devil. Flight.  
  
And when we held each other's hand, and approached a new mortal, he would smile at me.  
  
"Come, we dance to the heartbeat!" He held out his hand.  
  
And we danced. The heartbeat grew fatster as he showed his wonderful dancing skills. And we laughed, and we kissed, toying with each other.  
  
We shared the blood, and fed each other. The blood always tasting so much sweeter when he fed me.  
  
We skinned our fangs on each other's necks, hissing in delight. I ran my claws down his hair, and he would close his eyes and breath deep breathes.  
  
"My love...My beautiful Natalie..." He would whisper, holding my head up by my chin.  
  
He told me about the coming centuries, how we would spend them together. He told me about my beautiful black hair, and blue eyes. He told me so much.  
  
We would dance to the wind, the music that was not there. We would have our own parties, only to ourselves and the large golden ballroom in his castle. We would sit on the roof, and listen to the wolves howl for us. The children of the night he called them...  
  
I was the first. The first bride. Bride of Dracula, Natalie. I was the first, and the only one he truly felt love.  
  
He wanted to give me everything.  
  
We were in love. We...were...  
  
Then we found our children to be dead.

Something changed in him. Something I dare not try to comprehend. Soon...Soon everything we did together stopped. Slowly, he stopped coming to our bedroom, stopped making the bed. He insisted that we were dead, and we should sleep in a coffin. And soon he slept alone in that coffin.  
  
We no longer played. We did fly together, or feed each other. We didn't kiss or tease each other. We no longer danced to the heartbeats, or the music that was there.  
  
Slowly I watched my Dracula die again...  
  
For after a century, he was not the man, the monster I fell in love with.  
  
He didn't talk about my hair, or praise the beauty he saw in me. He didn't tell me of the coming centuries. And what he told me would happen, the happiness he ensured me, did not come to be.  
  
I waited patiently for him to return to me. For him to turn and look at me, and see my disappointment, and for him to take me in his arms and tell me he loved me. Such things I hoped for for such a long time. Such things that never came true.  
  
He kept pushing me away. Only calling to me when needed. When he needed to feel my breath on his neck. And gave me nothing in return. No aid in feeding, no aid in living like I did.  
  
Only vengence when I told him the villagers of Translyvania attacked me. Only anger when I told him one of the Valerious was coming.  
  
Soon he did nothing with me. He barely looked at me. He only did to his own business. He only tended to the dead wooms of our children. Talking to himself trying to find a solution to maek them live. Only talking to himself, telling me to stay away! He never spoke of the love he once felt.   
  
My Vladius was gone, the memories from when I was alive so dull now. Memories of the past were all I had left, but they were so far away now. Dead and gone, along with his and my soul. The memories of when he told me he loved me so far...  
  
For it had been a century since the word, love, and passed his fangs and lips.  
  
Oh, those amazing lips.  
  
But I still waited, like the fool I was. Hoping someday he would tell me he loved me. Until then, I went to him when he called. And saw what he wanted, not for love, but for the sensation. That fire in his eyes, turned from care into longing. He held out his hand, and I would give in to the power that radiated from him. The power the devil blessed him with. I would bathe in it, and drown in it. Drink it as if it were the blood I ate, or the wine I missed.  
  
I would give in to that power that he had over me. And with it I would try to forget the truth, that he still didn't say he loved me. I would try, and I would fail. But still, I gave him the pleasure of having me there, hoping it will spark something... Hoping his heart would beat again for me, that I may rekindled the heart again...  
  
My efforts in vain.  
  
For slowly Vladius Dracula died again. One-Hundread and fifty years later, love had still not gone through his lips. The vampire I stared at now was not Dracula. Just a monster born from the devil. And I was cursed to be with him for all eternity, holding on to the promises he once gave me, dead like everything else in my life. Though, I have no life, now do I? And I do not have his heart anymore. Because I realized...He has no heart. There is nothing in his eyes, no love, no passion, or joy, or sadness. Nothing. Nothing... He let go of it all over the years. How, I don't know, but he did. He let it all go, he lost it. When I had not.   
  
There is nothing that beats in his chest, he owns nothing like that. He made it die, and I had to watch. He made it die, and he doesn't even notice it.  
  
Then he stopped calling his love, and merely his bride...  
  
And I started crying there, I fell to my knees, and cried in all of it. He stared at me, not understanding why, he came to me and tried to help. But I pushed him away, the liar, the monster that cursed me.  
  
I stayed on the ground for a moment, hissing at him, then I just got up and grabbed him.  
  
"I love you...I love you..." I said.  
  
And he said nothing, and only held me. There was no heartbeat...  
  
Days I spent crying, and days he held me. But I felt no warmth from him, only the bitter cold, as if he were merely the wind. Those days, no one bothered us, not even the wolves sang for us.  
  
"Come my bride, we must feed, I grow hungry." He said.  
  
"Am I merely your bride!?" I hissed at him.  
  
He hissed back at me, showing his fangs. I stared at him, and only fell back on the floor, and cried.  
  
"I love you! I love you!" But he didn't say anything.  
  
And soon all my pains would vanish.  
  
It was just going to be a feeding. Grab a woman, I felt like woman blood that night. But the wolves did not sing, and the moon was hidden behind dark clouds.  
  
I flew down, hissing and screeching at mortals, envious and jelous of them... Waiting for one to come out. I looked over, and saw him doing the same. I soon pearched on a roof, and looked over at him, roaring at the ground.  
  
Then a horse galloped near. And on it was something impossible. Gabriel was alive... How I question not. How he could live over a hundred years, I do not care anymore. But happiness filled my weeping heart when I saw him with crossbow, and silver steak. I knew what he had come to do.  
  
I did not run from him. I did not hiss or try to fend him off. I stared at him, and he nodded at me. Then I stood up, and spread my white wings, and looked at him. Dracula was flying towards me, wanting to keep his only bride alive. But he was too late. And the steak pierced my heart. I did not scream, or try to take it out. I welcomed it, and welcomed my death.   
  
"No!" Dracula screamed.  
  
Then he saw who it was under the hat, and holding the crossbow.  
  
"Gabriel! Impossible! No!"  
  
Then Dracula flew down, and killed Gabriel where he stood. In one week Gabriel would revive himself again, no memory of the lives before.  
  
Dracula, bless his non-beating heart, he didn't stop to taste the blood of Gabriel. He came to me, and held me as we fell to the ground. I could feel it. The finally dying body. It was disapearing into the ash it should have become long ago.  
  
And I stared up and Dracula, and finally I saw emotion in his dead eyes. He was sorry. He was sad.  
  
"Cry for me...Vladius, please..." I whispered with my last breath.  
  
It must have been difficult for him. I know it was. But he held my head up, and my hand tightly. He stared at me, and one tear came from his eyes. A tear that surely burned his pale, cold skin...  
  
"I love you." I said.  
  
He didn't say anything, because he didn't feel anything. But I knew he did. For a brief moment I know he felt love, but of course it soon would disapear into the nothingness inside him. I know remnants of love was still there. And he felt love for me.  
  
Then I closed my eyes, then became ash.  
  
And I died, leaving my Dracula all alone, with only memories of emotions long gone, like me.

And soon, I would be replaced with three other brides, only Dracula trying to replace the memories of me. Soon he would not feel them like me, and push them away. Because that is what is, he cannot feel, that is Dracula.


End file.
